Anthropic asks SK Hynix for chip supplies: Inside the AI industry's rush to build custom semiconductors

Anthropic's custom chip strategy

Anthropic is pursuing a vertical integration model similar to those already executed by Amazon (Trainium/Inferentia) and Google (TPU) . The company discussed manufacturing a custom AI chip with Samsung Electronics on its 2nm process node, and on July 25, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei confirmed supply agreements with both Samsung and SK Hynix, including potential long-term memory chip contracts and investment arrangements .

This push follows a $65 billion funding round in May 2026 that valued Anthropic at $965 billion, making it the world's most valuable AI company ahead of OpenAI . Notably, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron all joined that round as "strategic infrastructure partners"—the first time the world's three largest memory manufacturers simultaneously invested in a single AI model company .

Chey described AI developers pursuing chip ambitions as "remarkable," and noted that SK Hynix has been flooded with unprecedented investment offers from big tech firms seeking to secure supply lines, including proposals to fund extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines .

$950 billion in deals reshape the supply chain

President Lee Jae Myung's AI summit in San Francisco on July 24–25, 2026, brought together the CEOs of Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Broadcom alongside top South Korean business leaders . The headline result: South Korean and US technology companies agreed to pursue approximately $950 billion in semiconductor supply and manufacturing partnerships over the next five years .

• SK Group will supply about $750 billion in high-performance semiconductors to US tech firms .
• Samsung Electronics will supply about $200 billion in chips to Broadcom .
• SK Telecom plans to build a 2-gigawatt data center powered by Nvidia's next-generation chips and SK Hynix HBM4 memory, due online in 2027 .

Prior to the trip, Lee unveiled a sweeping industrial strategy with over $576 billion in chip investment, with Samsung and SK Hynix collectively committing 800 trillion won ($518 billion) to build new fabrication sites .

Chey Tae-won's warnings: 'chipflation,' 'pandemonium,' and structural change

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has delivered a series of escalating warnings throughout 2026 that frame Anthropic's move as a rational response to a chronically undersupplied market:

• March 2026: Chey warned that the chip wafer shortage would last until 2030, with supply lagging demand by more than 20% . He noted that producing HBM requires substantial wafer capacity and that ramping up takes four to five years due to constraints in construction, power, and water .
• July 2026: Chey declared that the semiconductor market has entered a "structural change," moving beyond the traditional cyclical pattern of oversupply and shortage . He described the memory supply situation as "utter chaos" and warned of "pandemonium" in 2027 .
• Demand-supply gap: Chey projected AI chip demand will surge 60–100% in 2027 compared to 2026, while supply will barely increase, further widening the gap . Overall memory demand is expected to grow at least 50–60% .
• 'Chipflation': Chey warned that AI-driven demand is absorbing memory semiconductors, causing prices for chips and end products like PCs and smartphones to rise—a phenomenon he called "chipflation" . He described current memory prices as "abnormal" and warned that sustained high prices would invite new competitors and geopolitical retaliation .

The timeline of events reveals a cascade: SK Hynix began receiving flood-level investment offers by May 2026 ; Chey warned repeatedly of structural shortages through mid-2026 ; Anthropic formally submitted its chip supply request to SK Hynix ; and President Lee's summit sealed $950 billion in deals that lock in Korea's role as the central AI chip supplier for US tech giants . Anthropic's custom chip push is both a response to these supply constraints and a reflection that even high-margin foundry relationships may not guarantee enough HBM and advanced-node capacity in a persistently tight market.